Dating news

At www.phys.uu.nl/~vgent/astro/almagestephemeris_main.htm is a web page with Java Script calendar and ephemeris modules for calculating geocentric luni-solar and planetary positions for an arbitrary calendar date according to the kinematical models of the sun, the moon and the planets as described in the Almagest of Claudius Ptolemy in AD150.

Ancient World Chronology and the Bible is an article you can find at www.reformed-theology.org/ice/newslet/bc/bc98.09.html and the author has clearly been reading Donovan Courville's book, The Exodus Problem and Its Ramifications Loma Linda:1971. I can remember reading this back in the 1980s and various comments on it at 'Study Group' meetings at that time.

Looking at the index to In the News it is noticable that chronological matters have been in short supply - and yet SIS has over the years published many articles on this subject. Too many according to some members. An Alan Montgomery post on the Eric Aitchison chronology email thread concerns stratigraphic problems that appear insurmountable from a conventional viewpoint. Archaeology that is dated reliably to the time of Ramses II, clearly precedes that of Ramses III, and that in turn clearly precedes strata associated with the Monarchy (of Israel and Judah).

May 3rd ... The Science of Doom (new web site devoted to explaining the inner workings of the Greenhouse Gas Theory of Global Warming). Recommended by Steve McIntyre as its policy is not to criticise heretics (or even old codgers) but is committed to engaging with the general public.

May 3rd ... new web site by Nigel Calder, co-author of The Chilling Stars

Apparently, samples can be extracted from fossil coral reef systems which can be used to assess sea levels and climate in the past. The process is described at www.physorg.com/print199712597.html but unfortunately the details are not elaborated on and only that the fossil coral indicates there have been big swings in sea level in the Late Pleistocene, not just at the end of the Ice Age but perhaps as early as 30,000 years ago.

See www.almasryalyaum.com/en/print/54897 ... Zahi Hawass, commenting on the new Bayesian C14 dates as reported on In the News June 18th (as published in Science). He says carbon 14 has a margin of error of 100 years. In order to date Egyptian dynasties we need specific dates, C14 should not be used to make changes to the chronology of ancient Egypt, not even as a helpful addition. We can use geoarchaeology, DNA, laser scanning - but carbon dating is unclear.

The Douglas Keenan story has resurfaced across the blogosphere but see http://climateaudit.org for probably the best treatment - and it's implications. The FOI commissioner has agreed tree ring data from Queens University in Belfast should be passed over to Keenan. Mike Baillie, in various mainstream media sources such as The Guardian, New Scientist and The Times, has come across as a very angry man.

At www.physorg.com/print189177985.html New Zealand's Kauri trees can measure 4m wide at the trunk and live for up to 2000 years. Exeter University and Oxford University are taking part in the creation of what is hoped to be a 30,000 year old climate record on New Zealand - from Kauri trees preserved in bogs and wetland environments. Tree rings are also useful in extracting information about levels of atmospheric carbon. Some of the trees are thought to date back to the last interglacial phase - 130,000 years ago.